Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Today we started our food culture mini-unit and our next design challenge to follow up on our Soundtrack A-Side/B-Side design project.We started by quickly looking at food advertisements in magazines of yesteryear, particularly National Geographics of the 1940s and LIFE of the early 1970s. Not the most scientific work, mind you, but I wanted you using physical magazines and not just flipping through the complete run of LIFE on Google Books. (Yet.)

We identified the food we saw advertised, then sorted that information to look for trends. We discovered a strong presence of alcohol ads in the early 1970s and then I speculated, by playing some connect the dots between cultural experiences, intended targets of the ads, and content of the ads themselves why that might be the case. (Middle age white male + cultural revolution = self medication?)

After that, we created food maps of RSU 10. Where can you buy food in our district. We discovered some interesting trends around local food vs chains, quality vs quantity, and a preponderance of pizza places.

This lead to our next design challenge: How might we design a successful pitch for a new eatery for Franklin County?Consider the steps.DISCOVER. Your challenge. What are you creating. What do you need to know in order to develop a successful pitch for an eatery? Unpack it. What are the terms in there you need to know. What does that make you consider?EMPATHIZE. Interview. Get out there and find out what people what. What would people flock to and in how many droves? What DON'T they want to see?EXPERIMENT. Create some low-rez prototypes of what this place might look like. At the same time, what might the pitch sound like? Function like? What media could you use to support your pitch? Presentation slides? Video? Signage? Something else?PRODUCE. Create the pitch. Try it out. Get some feedback before the final version.You'll be using the DEEP DT process to design and then pitch this idea to your investors i.e. the rest of the class and perhaps even some members of our admin team here. We'll also deliver these pitches in the Forum. A proper space for such intensity.The rubric is not yet ready. But it will be. It will be....HOMEWORK.Blog: 3+ Posts. (Tracker is fixed. Post last week's links please.)Req'd Post: For this week's blog post, discuss the food culture in your family. What does your family typically eat? What traditions do you maintain? What, if any, ethnic/regional/heritage foods inform your family's eating?

Have fun. Do some exploring. And if possible, include some pictures. Maybe even some highlighting those traditions.

Design: How might we design a successful pitch for a new eatery for Franklin County?

Research: How to successfully pitch an idea. (Got Netflix or cable? Hunt up The Pitch. Got HuluPlus? Hunt up some Shark Tank. Got an internet? Look up "elevator pitches," "PIXAR pitch," and "Art of the Pitch." Here's a slideshow with some good intel as well.)